Marmalade

On Sunday, I had an interview for a position of assistant professor in a University in Japan. It was covered with snow and I worried about traffic conditions. The interview took about 30 minutes and I failed to sell myself. An interviewer told me just to relax.
After that, I met my family at the station. Mari went to a theater to watch the movie "L--change the world", and I and ken waited her on a bench. But we moved to the food store because an old man near us acted very suspicious. After a while Mari joined us and bought some brands of chocolate. We had dinner in a Chinese restaurant.
The next day, I made marmalade from iyo-kan, a sort of Japanese orange. I boiled the peel of iyo-kan and removed white pith from it. I cut it into pieces, boiled again, added the pulp and sugar, heated for 10 min stirring continuously, poured it into a sterilized jar, and voila. Subsequently I adjusted the flavor of blueberry jam made by Mari. I added lemon and grape juice to it and gave her the reformed jam.
I know that the term "marmalade" is derived from a French phrase "Marie est malade", which means "Marie (Mary, Queen of Scots) is sick". Sure, Mari was very sick of me.

China products

Several people in Japan were sickened by eating China-made gyouza (chaoz, a sort of dumpling) contaminated with methamidphos, an organophosphate insecticide. To date, many problems for China products, such as pet foods contaminated with melamine, toxic toothpaste with diethyleneglycol, and lead poisoned toys, have been reported in the USA. Perhaps it was very fortunate to have no such incident so far in Japan. Several companies make an appeal that their products are "safe China free".
When Mari heard about it on the news, she told me that she decided never to buy any China food. But the next day she bought some frozen foods, which contain many china products. Of course, it may be impossible to exclude all China products from our daily foods. With advance of globalization, numerous foods and products has been imported from China into Japan. The self-sufficiency ratio of food in Japan is less than 40% now.
The food companies are responsible for producing safety food than reducing the production cost. For the globalization of food, it is necessary to introduce the quality control engineering in Japan to the producers. At the same time, it should be given more importance on self-sufficient agriculture in Japan with localized food systems. To be a wise-consumer, one needs to be careful not only about the price but also the quality of food.
We have abundant resources of science, engineering, and agriculture in Japan. Japan desires to establish a nation based on the science and technology, although most scientists and engineers are working under poor conditions. I would be proud of our science and technology and hope the quality of products will be maintained in Japan.

Scientific news

According to an investigation by Cabinet Office, 60% people in Japan are interested in news about science. In fact, the number of scientific news is increasing in the Japanese media.
However, I feel that most scientific articles in Japanese newspapers failed to introduce the scientific values to readers. They tend to have grandiose titles, obscure contents, and misleading comments about the practical use. It would be better to employ more scientist as newspaper writer.
In contrast to above investigation, I do not know the reason why scientists have ill-treated in Japan. Many postdoctoral fellows cannot get their job in either academic or business. They become part-time workers and are called "highly-educated working poor".
Does Ph.D mean "peon having doctorate"? Or, only a "pipette-handling device"? It is very curious for me.

On a diet

Mari was on a diet for a year and gained 30 pounds. It is beyond my comprehension.

Setsu-bun

Last Sunday, we went to the shopping mall and watched the Planet Earth movie there. But it bored Ken and he soon squirmed in his seat. Sometimes Mari had to take him to the rest room.
In Japan, Feb. 3 is called "setsu-bun", which means the turning point of season. Many Japanese throw beans and call "fuku-wa uchi (fortune in), oni-wa soto (demons out)". Ken made a mask of oni, a demon in Japan, in the daycare. I put the mask and entered the living room. Ken laughed and ran away, and threw beans at me. We ate the beans as many as each age to kick demons out of ourselves.
Recently, it has become popular in Japan to eat eho-maki on this day. Eho means the good fortune direction. On 2008, the direction is South Southeast (SSE). To get a fortune, one should face in the direction of eho and eat a long sushi roll (eho-maki) without talking. But we ate it over taking in the car. We lost in the direction of SSE and failed to be SSE (silent sushi-eater).
Steer straight eho, that's SSE !

Nasu

Mari bought a guidebook for Tochigi, a Prefecture in Japan. She hopes to live in Nasu in Tochigi. She told me that we should make our home there before I get a job. But I disagreed with her. She fell asleep and dreamed of living in Nasu. I could not sleep worrying about my prospects. It is obvious which spent a happy time.
My son got otitis media again. His eardrum was inflamed, and he was prescribed antibiotic ear drops at the hospital. I guessed that he never let us to drop it into his ear. But Mari did it while he was asleep. Perhaps he felt as if a thunderbolt had fallen into his year. He got angry and cried out.

Patch

I patched Ken's pants without a sewing machine. I mended my torn sweater too. My clothes often have tears and holes for unknown reasons.
Mari attended a college reunion party and returned home at midnight. "Oh, So cold!" She slipped into Ken's bed.